Comin' 'Round the Mountain
by Tuch
Summary: Squall and Laguna go on vacation to get better acquainted, but things don't go as planned. Or do they?


COMIN' 'ROUND THE MOUNTAIN 1/1 (PG-13)

Summary: Squall and Laguna go on vacation to become better acquainted, but things don't go as planned. Or do they? 

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They belong to people wealthier than I am. 

Notes: I wrote this story as a sequel to my previous story, "Searching for Time," but it makes sense even if you haven't read the other one. I gave it a PG-13 rating for some naughty language. There are spoilers for the entire game, so, if you haven't finished it, turn back while you can. 

Feedback: Always welcome, even if it's just to say, "You suck." 

"Don't tell me you haven't finished packing yet!" Rinoa said from the doorway. Squall turned from his bed and grinned sheepishly. 

"Sorry, I've been busy," he said, shoving rolled-up clothes into a large duffel bag. 

"The transport to Esthar leaves in 20 minutes, and Laguna's waiting. Hurry up!" Her tone was insistent but good-natured as she bustled about the room helping him get his personal items together. 

Squall wondered what he'd been smoking when he'd agreed to spend a week camping with his father. It was a terrible time to leave Balamb, with paperwork piling up on his desk and a new semester only weeks away. But Headmaster Cid, Quistis and Rinoa had ambushed him in his office late last Thursday afternoon, and Cid had threatened to assign him to the Garden Festival Committee if he didn't take some time off. Laguna had gotten wind that Squall was taking a mandatory vacation, and, before Squall knew it, he was packing his bags for a week in the wilderness. 

Rinoa broke into his thoughts. "Oh, c'mon, don't make that face. It'll be fun. Besides, if the president of Esthar can take a little break from work, so can you."

Squall zipped up his bag and speed-walked to the transport area, with Rinoa matching him stride for stride. Despite his reluctance to leave, he knew she would make his life miserable if he missed his ride. Quistis and Zell were waiting for them at the departure site. 

"Don't worry," Quistis assured him. "Garden is in good hands."

Zell shadowboxed next to her. "Yeah, it's the patients runnin' the asylum, baby!" he shouted, punching an imaginary enemy. Squall rolled his eyes. 

"Is it just me, or does he seem more hyper than usual?"

Quistis explained, "The cafeteria started serving a new drink called Double Mocha Frappachino. He had four of them before we came out here."

Squall was beginning to like this vacation idea less and less, but it was too late to back out now. He adjusted his duffel bag on his shoulder, gave Rinoa's hand a quick squeeze, and stepped onto the transport. Squall was embarrassed as Rinoa waved insanely and Zell shadowboxed his way across the platform. Suddenly, the transport couldn't leave fast enough. Seven days in the woods with Laguna wouldn't be so bad. At least he wouldn't be embarrassed in front of anyone he knew. 

* * *

Laguna Loire pushed an errant strand of brown hair out of his eyes and checked his reflection in the window of a nearby store. 

"How do I look?" he asked Kiros. 

"Butt ugly, as usual. But you can't help it, so don't stress yourself." Kiros's grin widened to match Laguna's, and he leaned over to brush a piece of lint off of his boss's flannel shirt. The only sign that Laguna wasn't as carefree as he seemed was the restless way he fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves. 

"You nervous?" Kiros asked. 

"Who, me?" He chuckled when Kiros stared hard at him. "I haven't been this nervous since the day I asked Raine to marry me."

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

They were silent for a few minutes as they watched the transport from Balamb dock at the station. 

"Do you think this is a good idea?" Laguna asked. 

Kiros gripped him by the shoulder. "This is a great idea. You've been trying to get Squall to take some time off for months. You're going to have a great time." 

Laguna nodded sharply. "You're right. That wilderness trail will never know what hit it!" He said goodbye to Kiros and made his way to the transport to meet Squall. 

As Laguna walked away, Ward stepped up silently beside Kiros, which is more or less how Ward did everything. He shook his head from side to side. 

"I know what you're thinking, man, and I agree. I don't know who to feel sorrier for – Squall, Laguna or the poor wildlife."

* * *

"So, how have things been?" Laguna asked his son once they were comfortably inside the truck. It would be several hours before they reached the forest, and Laguna hoped they wouldn't be filled with the sound of the engine humming. 

"Fine," Squall said, and he winced at his own reply. He'd promised himself before he left that he was going to give this vacation a fair shot. He'd put Laguna through hell getting their relationship off the ground, and he wanted to do his share to make it work -- even if it meant forcing himself to be congenial. "I left Quistis in charge, which should keep the mayhem to a minimum," he added. 

Laguna pulled one hand off the wheel and reached over to tousle Squall's hair, but he yanked his hand back before he made contact. The affectionate gesture had seemed natural, but he didn't want to go too far too fast. They still had a lot of ground to cover. The next few minutes were absorbed by the sound of wheels on dirt as both men searched for something to say. 

"I heard Esthar launched another spaceship," Squall said. There, that was a nice, neutral subject. 

"Yeah, and she's a beauty. We're gonna use it to transport materials from the planet to the moon."

"Why?"

"With our best minds no longer consumed with keeping Adel on ice, I've got them working on a way to prevent the Lunar Cry." He eyed Squall out of the corner of his eye and was rewarded when his son's eyebrows shot toward the roof. 

"That would be…amazing. No more monsters."

"Yup. None of the extra-terrestrial variety, anyway. It's still just theory, though."

The two men spent the better part of the next hour discussing technical details of Project Lunar Gag. It was better than silence, but Laguna found himself growing restless. He could have written all this information in an e-mail. What he really wanted was to know more about Squall's life -- and, he admitted to himself, he wanted Squall to know more about his.

"So, how's Rinoa," Laguna asked, trying to steer the conversation into more personal territory.

"Fine. She's studying to be a SeeD."

"Think she'll make it?"

"Maybe. She's certainly a good enough fighter and magic user."

"But…?" Laguna asked. Forty-three years of knocking around the planet had honed his ability to detect when people were leaving out important bits of information. 

"I'm not sure she has the instinct for it," Squall admitted quietly. 

"Think she'll make it?" Laguna asked again. 

There was a long pause, and Laguna wasn't sure if Squall was going to answer. Then he said, "No. I guess I don't." 

There, he'd said it. Everyone had been so pleased when Rinoa was accepted at Garden -- everyone except Squall. He loved her with everything he had, and he would trust her with his life on any day, but he'd been at Garden long enough to know a washout when he saw one. She thirsted for the excitement and the chance to help people, but she didn't have the instinct it took to be a mercenary. Squall hadn't had the heart to tell her, not when she was bouncing off the walls with ambition and plans for the future. 

"That must be hard," Laguna said, breaking through his thoughts. "Watching her put her soul into something when you know she's going to fail."

"Yeah, I guess."

Laguna's grip on the wheel tightened as he felt Squall slide into that aloof silence that was his trademark.

"What are you going to do when it comes time for her to take the SeeD test?" Laguna prodded. 

"I don't know. I'll figure it out then." What he didn't say was that Rinoa had already taken the test and failed. The results hadn't been released yet, but he knew she wouldn't be celebrating. 

The conversation that had started with so much promise was slipping away from him, and Laguna decided to drop the subject. They spent the next two hours in thoughtful silence, until a terrible screech filled the air and something heavy pounded the top of the truck. 

"What the hell was that?!" screamed Laguna. He twisted the wheel in an attempt to avoid the onslaught from above, and Squall stuck his head out the window. He grimaced at what he saw. A Malboro was flinging its tentacles wildly, battering the truck with its strength. 

"Pull over!" Squall ordered. 

Laguna tried to follow Squall's instructions, but the beast was making the truck its bitch. Finally, the roof tore off and hurtled into the sky. The truck and its occupants became airborne for a brief moment before crashing to the ground. Squall's ribs absorbed most of the impact, but he rose to his knees, trying to catch his breath and track the Malboro. Laguna landed butt-first in a soft spot of dirt and rolled for several feet before coming to a stop near one of the truck's tires. Both men leapt to their feet as the monster moved in for a second round. Thick purple fluid sprayed from one if its tentacles, and they tried to dodge it, but Squall felt his vision go dark, and Laguna cursed as drowsiness overwhelmed him and he dropped to the ground. Squall ran though a mental checklist of his supplies, but he hadn't though to bring anything with him to counteract blindness. He didn't even have a single spell stocked. It was truly stupid of him to come out here so unprepared, but he'd berate himself later -- if there was a later. Now there was work to do. 

With no vision and no weapon, he called on his last resource -- Eden. The ground shuddered beneath him as the Guardian Force came into form, building power with each passing second. Then, with the force of an angry god, Eden struck. The monster shrieked and flung its tentacles in every direction. It was severely wounded, but it wasn't dead yet. Squall fell to the ground to search for his bag, which held his trustiest fighting companion -- Lionheart.

Laguna jumped up with a start. The drowsiness lifted, and he got his first good look at what had transpired since he'd fallen asleep. The Malboro was bleeding green ooze and thrashing about like a creature possessed. He spotted Squall crawling around on the ground, rummaging through the twisted heap of metal that had been their truck. The monster stopped to stare at him for a second and then moved toward Squall, apparently seeing him as the greater threat. It whipped its tentacle through the air and caught Squall square in the chest, sending the SeeD flying into a nearby boulder. Laguna saw him hit the ground and go still, and he was consumed by a rage he hadn't felt since Ellone had been kidnapped nearly twenty years before. Letting loose a battle cry familiar from his fighting days with Ward and Kiros, he began bludgeoning the creature with the remains of the front bumper. The Malboro shrieked, but most of its fight was gone, and, after a few hits, it slumped to the ground, dead. Laguna leaned against a large rock to catch his breath. 

Laguna noticed Squall stir and ran to his side. 

"Are you all right?" he asked, eyeing his torn shirt and the swelling on the right side of his face. 

"I'm fine," Squall said, sitting upright. He was relieved that his vision had cleared, but not at the sharp pain that radiated through his chest with every breath. 

"You hit the boulder pretty hard. Did you break anything?"

"No. I said I'm fine." He grimaced hard as he shifted to his knees. 

"Obviously," Laguna replied sarcastically. "Don't move or you'll make it worse." He guided Squall back down to a sitting position, where he did a quick physical assessment. He didn't like the swelling on his head, but his ribs were a greater concern. He couldn't tell if anything was broken, but Squall was clearly in pain. 

"You killed that thing?" Squall asked, motioning toward the dead Malboro lying twenty feet away. 

"It was mostly dead. I just helped it along. You did a pretty good job on it while I was napping."

"You mean Eden did a good job on it."

Laguna looked at him questioningly. 

"Eden's a GF. The most powerful one in existence."

Laguna nodded in understanding. He hadn't had a lot of experience with Guardian Forces -- just what he'd tasted back when he'd thought Squall was a fairy -- but he knew they were nothing to be toyed with. 

"I guess our camping trip is off," Squall commented, brushing off Laguna's resisting hand and pulling himself to his feet.

"Yeah, we've gotta get back to Esthar." 

Both their gazes drifted to the smashed truck -- and its equally smashed radio. 

"How do you propose we do that?" Squall asked. It would take them about two days to walk back to the city, and every muscle in Squall's body protested at the thought. 

"I don't want to walk back any more than you do, but I doubt anyone will just happen to come by here," Laguna said. He ran through their options. They could walk back through the valley, but it was crawling with monsters as least as dangerous as the Malboro that had nearly killed them. Or they could go over the mountain. They'd face fewer monsters, but the climb would be grueling, and it would take several days. Laguna wasn't sure if even he was in good enough shape to do it, let alone Squall. 

"The decision's yours," he said. 

Squall ran both scenarios through his head before deciding to climb the mountain. He wasn't looking forward to the climb, but, in his state, he doubted he could fight off another Malboro – or even a large cat, for that matter. And he didn't want to put Laguna in any more danger than necessary. Squall laughed at the thought. When had he started becoming protective of Laguna?

"Something funny?" Laguna asked. 

"No. But we'd better get moving. It'll be dark soon."

They salvaged as much of their scattered gear as they could and started their way up the mountain. Laguna made a special effort to move slowly, and Squall made an even greater effort to mask his expression with every sharp pain that wracked his torso. A few hours later the sun began to set, and Laguna insisted they make camp for the night. He was tired, and he noticed that Squall's footsteps had become more plodding and his breath more labored. While Squall set up the sleeping bags, Laguna went about building a fire. 

Squall pulled himself close to the fire and soaked in the warmth. The mountain air had grown cold, and he was grateful for the light and heat that seeped into his bones. Laguna sat down next to him and handed him a stick with a small, puffy white ball on it. 

"What's this?" Squall asked, staring curiously at the substance. 

"For crying out loud, it's a marshmallow."

"A marshmallow?" Squall repeated. 

"Yeah, it's a soft ball of mostly sugar. You've never heard of it before?"

"They don't serve these in the cafeteria."

Laguna tried to mask his surprise. Every kid in the world had heard of marshmallows, and he wondered what other basics his son had missed out on. 

"It's good. Let the fire make it nice and toasted, and then shove it in your mouth."

Squall stuck the whole marshmallow into the flames, and it lit up like a torch. Laguna let loose a belly laugh that echoed through the quiet mountainside. 

"I said toast it, not flambe it," he said, choking on his laughter. 

"Oh." Squall held up his crispy marshmallow, not quite sure what to do with it. Laguna slipped it off the stick, tossed it into the fire, and replaced it with a fresh marshmallow. 

"Now try again."

Squall held the stick carefully above the flames and turned it until it was lightly toasted on all sides. Then he pulled it from the flames and examined it carefully. 

"What are you waiting for?" Laguna asked, growing impatient. "Eat it."

"But I missed a spot," Squall protested. 

Laguna sighed in exasperation. "Dammit, Squall, don't be such a perfectionist. Just shove it in your mouth and chew."

Squall did as he was told, and Laguna noted the expression that flitted across his face as he chewed the soft treat. 

After he'd felt the last of the marshmallow slide down his throat, Squall said, "You're right. It's good."

Laguna spent the rest of the evening strangely giddy, and it took him nearly forty minutes to settle down enough to fall asleep. Squall drifted off as soon as his bruised body hit the sleeping bag and enjoyed a blessedly dreamless sleep. 

Eight hours later, dawn woke both men gently with prodding rays of light. Squall groaned at the stiffness in his muscles, and the cool air felt like fire as he inhaled sharply. 

"You OK?" Laguna asked. He didn't know why he bothered to ask, since he already knew Squall's answer. 

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said. 

Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn, Laguna thought. Just like Raine. 

By mid-afternoon they were a little less than a quarter of the way up the mountain, and Laguna suggested a rest. He crafted a bow and arrow out of surrounding materials and set out to find something to eat. He'd hoped Squall would take the opportunity to get some sleep, but all his SeeD training rebelled against the idea. Laguna finally agreed to allow him to start the fire. 

Squall waited until Laguna was out of sight before attempting the task. Every inch of his body screamed in agony, and he knew Laguna would never let him help if he saw how difficult it was for him just to bend over. He could have done as Laguna had suggested and rest up, but his pride wouldn't let him become dead weight. 

He'd just managed to gather the kindling when he heard a scream from somewhere down the path. A wave of pain shot from his torso to his head and sent him pitching forward, but he righted himself and stumbled down the path toward the scream. 

He got near the edge of a sheer cliff and saw a huge, hostile bird swooping down on Laguna as he struggled to stay away from the edge. The bird seemed pissed about something, and it pecked wildly at Laguna's arms and face. The battle was too close to make the bow and arrow practical, so he used it to bludgeon the beast. Squall watched the two of them inch toward the edge of the cliff, and his stomach lurched. It was all Laguna could do not to get his eyes pecked out, and he was steadily losing the battle to stay on land. He took a final, desperate swing at the bird with his arm and made contact with its head. The bird screeched loudly and took off, but the motion sent Laguna backward into the air. He let out a strangled scream and slid off the edge. 

"No!" Squall shouted, as if he could defy the laws of gravity by sheer force of will. He ran to the edge of the cliff as quickly as his aching legs would carry him, dreading the site he expected to see -- that of Laguna plunging to his death. He pressed himself to the ground and looked over the cliff to see Laguna clinging to a piece of rock beneath him. 

"Give me your hand!" Squall said, extending his arm over the edge. Laguna reached up, one hand reaching for Squall while the other clung to the rockface. Finally, he managed to grab Squall's outstretched hand, but his weight pulled him farther down the side of the cliff and Squall closer to its edge. 

Squall felt the strength flee his body as Laguna grasped his arm. The ever-present pain spiked, bringing on a spiraling wave of dizziness and nausea, and he knew instantly that he would never be able to pull him to safety. Tears of frustration and agony pooled in his eyes, and Laguna sensed what was going on.

"Let go!" Laguna screamed. 

"Are you crazy? You'll die!"

"We'll both die if you don't let go! Don't argue with me." Squall continued his desperate attempt to pull Laguna up the mountain, and an outsider watching them might have interpreted it as two guys flashing machismo for the other's benefit. But they were both sincere. Laguna would rather have died alone than spend the last few seconds of his life knowing he'd taken his son with him, and Squall would rather have joined him than spend the rest of his life with the memory of his father falling to his death. Squall's thoughts raced through his head too fast for him to make sense of them. 

__

Please, Hyne, don't let me drop him -- don't let him die -- don't let it end like this – don't let me fail – this is crazy – I can't do this – I'm not strong enough – this hurts so much – Rinoa, I love you – what the hell am I doing? – I'm going to lose him …

"Please, Squall, let go, goddammit!" Laguna pleaded. He swung his other hand up and tried to pry Squall's fingers from his wrist, and Squall fought equally hard to hold on. As they struggled, Squall slid closer to the cliff's edge. Squall summoned every last bit of strength he had, but it wasn't enough. Finally, in one last act of desperation, he screamed, "Someone help me!"

Suddenly, Squall felt a blast of cold air and an impossible lightness. His grip on Laguna's hand evaporated, and the tangled mass of sensation and pain sent him tumbling into unconsciousness. 

Laguna panicked as he felt himself slide out of Squall's grasp. This was it, he thought. This was how it was going to end. It took him several seconds to notice that he wasn't falling. He hovered in midair for a few long moments before a cool gust of air blew him up and over the cliff face. He clung to the grass and gasped for air, forcing himself to release the terrified breath he'd been holding. It wasn't until he looked up that he saw the stunningly tall, blue woman standing over him. 

"Who are you?" Laguna asked. 

"My name is Shiva," the woman said in a husky, confident tone. I'm a Guardian Force." 

Laguna's nerves were still frayed, but he was beginning to get a better grasp on the situation. 

"Thank you," he said, not wanting to seem ungrateful, "but why did you wait until now to help?"

"Because he didn't ask for help until now," Shiva explained. "Squall travels with three Guardians. Me, Eden and Doomtrain. Eden is always fashionably late, and Doomtrain is…well, Doomtrain is just a big choo choo, so the rescue was left to me. You're welcome." Her eyes glittered in wise amusement. 

Laguna glanced over to where Squall was lying on his side. His breathing was shallow, and even in unconsciousness his face clenched in pain. 

"Can you help me get him back to Esthar?" Laguna asked. 

"I have the powers of a god, but even my abilities are limited," Shiva said. The best I can do is get you to the bottom of the other side of the mountain. You'll have to make the rest of the way on your own."

"That's better than nothing. Thank you."

Shiva smiled and disappeared. A brisk wind kicked up around them, and Laguna felt himself being lifted into the air. Minutes later, he and Squall were settled gently in the dirt at the base of the mountain, about four miles from Esthar. Laguna lifted Squall carefully onto his back and began the long walk toward the city. 

Thirty minutes later, Laguna stopped to rest. The heat was unbearable, and Squall was a hell of a lot heavier than he looked. Still, he could make out details of the city, and he finally felt that the end of this ordeal was in sight. What a mess it had been. He'd wanted to have some fun, but they'd both been bruised and battered, and he wondered if Squall would ever return to Esthar. But something tugged at his heart -- something he'd have to discuss with Squall to make sense of. As Laguna watched Squall's chest rise and fall in a painfully uneven rhythm, his eyes flipped open and he immediately tried to sit up. Laguna restrained him with a gentle hand. 

"No," he said simply. "Don't move."

"What happened?" Squall mumbled. His brain was still a mass of pain and emotion, and he had to expend what seemed like an obscene amount of energy just to keep Laguna's face in focus. 

"Shiva saved our lives," Laguna explained. "I'll explain the details later." 

Squall tried to nod, but it hurt too much, so he blinked instead. 

"Are we almost there?"

"Yeah, I just stopped to rest my aching back. I ain't as young as I used to be, you know. But we'd better get going." Squall blinked again. 

Laguna stopped. "Wait. I want to say something," he said. Squall waited expectantly while Laguna fumbled for words. 

"I didn't expect you to go out of your way for me like you did today. Thank you. Oh, yeah, and I love you."

Squall winced. It had never been easy for him to hear those words, or say them. Part of him soared at the idea that Laguna could feel that way about him, and another part of him panicked. What did Laguna expect from him? Was he supposed to say, "I love you, too"? Or could he get by with just a "Thank you"? 

Laguna's face fell when his declaration was met with silence. 

"Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut," Laguna said, "but I've learned over the years that it's best tell people how you feel about 'em when you have the chance. I'm sorry if that makes you uncomfortable." 

"No," Squall started. "I'm sorry I'm making things more difficult than they need to be. It's just—" The words stuck in his throat, and he paused to think about what he wanted to say.

"It's just what?" Laguna prodded. 

"I've never had a father before, and I don't know what I'm supposed to do," he admitted. "I don't want to screw this up."

Laguna released a sharp exhale. He hadn't been expecting something quite so…honest. 

"I've never had a son before, and I don't want to screw it up, either. All I know is that I don't want to be the kind of father you see only on holidays. I want this to be real."

"So do I," Squall said, and they spent a long moment staring at each other, assessing what was happening. 

Finally, the words that Squall had guarded most of his life bubbled to the surface, and he said, "I love you, too."

Laguna was stunned that he'd actually said it. Was it just four months ago that Squall had refused to return his phone calls?

Squall was surprised at the powerful emotions that had momentarily overpowered the physical pain. He'd spent his life clinging to loneliness and cynicism – enjoyed it, in fact – and it wasn't until Rinoa that he'd opened himself up to romantic love. At around the same time, he'd formed powerful friendships with the others, but he still carried the vague sense that something was missing. He realized now that that something was family. 

He was grateful that Laguna had hung in there when most people would have flipped him off and moved on. But he also felt a sudden stab of shame for making Laguna scramble for crumbs. He'd make it up to him, he promised himself. Soon, when he wasn't so goddamn tired. 

Laguna watched Squall's facial expressions move in rhythm with his emotions. Then he noticed the fog that clouded his eyes as Squall couldn't quite stifle a gasp of pain. 

"Come on," Laguna said, once again lifting him gently on his back. "We're almost there." 

* * *

An hour later, Squall was resting comfortably in Laguna's bed. He was sore everywhere, but the cracked ribs, bruises and internal injuries were nothing a few Curas couldn't handle. Laguna stood at the foot of his bed, a notepad in hand. 

"I have a message for you from Quistis," he said, glancing at his pad. "It says, 'Dear Squall: We hope you're having a good time. Whatever you do, don't ask Irvine about the clowns. Love, Quistis. P.S. The cafeteria is no longer serving Double Mocha Frappachinos." 

Squall groaned. Hyne only knew what they'd been up to in his absence. 

"Sounds like they're having a pretty wild time," Laguna commented. 

"I don't care," Squall said, throwing his hands in the air. "As long as they clean it up before I get back."

"Speaking of getting back, there's no rush, you know."

"You're not suggesting another camping trip, I hope. 

"No, no, no," Laguna assured him. "I was thinking something more along the lines of a movie and dinner. Nothing where either of us has to move around too much." He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, where a sore spot had developed from carrying Squall across the plains of Esthar. 

"A movie sounds good," Squall said. It would get his mind off the mess he was likely going home to. 

"OK, the movie starts in an hour. I'll let you get dressed."

He headed toward the door, and then stopped and turned. 

"It wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked. 

"Are you serious?" Squall asked. "It was terrible. We nearly died."

"No, no. I mean saying the words…you know. Was it so awful?"

Understanding dawned, and Squall shook his head. "No," he said softly. "It wasn't so terrible."

Laguna turned back toward the door and whistled a chirpy tune on his way out.

END

I hope you enjoyed it. I'm considering writing a story about what happened back at the Garden while Squall was away. Anyone interested? 


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